Wednesday, October 28, 2015

GREETINGS LOVED ONES

Yes its true I made it into the Ensign but unfortunately I look like a dweebus. I know exactly what that face is. I was trying to act natural and it just did not work. Anywho, its fine. I shouldn't complain at least it is an accurate picture of who I really am, a dweebus.

This week we were able to put another one of our investigators on date for November 8th. His name is Patrick and he is from England. We literally met him about a week and a half ago and he's already on date because he is the most prepared dude I have ever taught. Do you want to know what makes him so prepared? He has already read the entire Book of Mormon and prayed to know if it was true. He has been researching the church for about a year after he found a copy of the Book of Mormon in a Marriott Hotel (yeah!) and he has been wanting to join the church ever since. The kid is only 19! The Book of Mormon makes our job so easy if they just pray about. So powerful! So we have been really blessed lately. We are excited for Patrick! He will get confirmed next transfer.

I gave my farewell on Sunday. Yes I am aware that it is super early but there are a lot of sisters going home these next 2 transfers so APPARENTLY it was my time to shine. It went really well actually. The topic that I was assigned was really inspired, "The Atonement, which can reclaim each one of us, bears no scars. That means that no matter what we have done or where we have been or how something happened, if we truly repent, he has promised that he would atone. And when he atoned, that settled that." It is a quote out of President Packers last general conference talk. It was pretty easy to talk about that one. It was surreal having it be my turn but I still have a while left thankfully!!!

We had the 5k race on Saturday but due to a serious of unfortunate events I was unable to run. I made it back for the breakfast at the end though and that was the best part I am sure. They were some pretty good bagels!

I am getting excited for the holidays. The workers are putting up lights like mad men and dare I say its beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Whoop dee dooo!

Love you all a heap.

Love,

Sister Leavitt

 

5 seconds of fame

Sister Burke can do small eyes like dad!

Sis Burke ready to scare Sis Rajah

 

Wednesday, October 21,2015

Hey y'all

This week was tiring but still super duper. I did 5 exchanges with 5 different sisters in a week. It is a lot of fun but it can be exhausting cause you have to be on your A game all the time haha. I have some amazing sisters I get to serve with so it has been a good opportunity for me to learn from them. The sisters in my district are from Australia, Micronesia, California, South Africa, Wales, Argentina, and Switzerland. So yeah you could say this mission is diverse.

This morning Elder Holland came to visit our mission and 7am. We had to be there at 6:45. It was so worth it though. He shook all of our hands and he wanted to hear our names and where we are from. When it was my turn of course I said "I am sister Leavitt from Nevada" and he said with a smile on his face "Well welcome to Utah." Not even an apostle can give me a break haha. It was awesome, I loved it! He gave an incredible training on the importance of the Book of Mormon and how it is the keystone to our religion. His voice even got loud at some points. So intense! It was amazing. Yeah, I love this mission.

This past week there was a huge religious conference dealio thing here in Salt Lake. There were so many different peeps here from monks, to Hindus, vicious catholics, and Sikhs (my favorite they are so flipping nice!) So that was exciting to share with all these people the gospel of Jesus Christ. Even in the Beehive house was bumping all weekend and we were making it rain copies of the Book of Mormon (is that appropriate?) People who are open minded are always like "ahh yeah this makes sense". I'm just like "Yeah homie cause ITS TRUE." Being a missionary is awesome. I highly recommend it!

Fred is still getting baptized but his date has changed to November 1st by popular request of those in his ward. They weren't happy about the Halloween baptism apparently so they asked if he could change it. It makes more sense really. He is excited and so are all the people around him. He has been investigating the church since March when I met him so every one is super stoked for him.

Thats all for this week folks. Read the Book of Mormon every day. It will CHANGE YOUR LIFE!

Love you,

Sister Leavitt

My amazing Australian Comp, Sis Burke

Our district killed it at zone activity games

Throw back Thursday exchange #bonitt

Wednesday, October 14, 2015

 

YES that story about the ghost is real. Sisters have been having other experiences there too like they hear the piano playing at night and also phantom children running and playing on the third floor. Apparently it always happens around this time of year. We are safe though they are nice little pioneer ghosts and they wont hurt us ;)

This week nothing too eventful happened besides recovering from conference and a whole ton of exchanges. I have three more before the end of the week then I am done. I am doing exchanges with baby Bon tomorrow so that will bring back the mems. She requested that we do it on a Thursday so it would be a "Throw Back Thursday" and I couldn't say no to that. Ah my child.

We always have crazies on the square but we had a super crazy on Friday. Sister Bon described it to her family in an email like this:

INTERESTING OCCURRENCE NUMBER 2 (This one's really interesting):

Right after this lady got taken away by security, a man walked up to the desk.

If I were to describe this man with one word, it would be... intense. His head leaned slightly to the left and he spoke with a very intense Austrian/German accent. Every word was emphasized and every consonant was pronounced very precisely. His eyes never stopped darting around. At first I wasn't sure if he was talking to me or someone else, because he never made eye contact.

"I'M LOOKING FOR AUSTRIAN INVESTIGATORS." His eyes were practically bulging out of his head.

"...Sorry?"

"I'M LOOKING FOR AUSTRIAN INVESTIGATORS. DO YOU KNOW WHERE INVESTIGATORS GO ON TEMPLE SQUARE?"

"I guess that would depend on the missionaries... There's not really a specific spot."

He left. It was weird but whatever. Then he came back a few minutes later and started talking to Sister Leavitt and her companion Sister Burke, who had just walked up to the desk.

"I'M LOOKING FOR AUSTRIAN INVESTIGATORS." We still couldn't tell which sister he was talking to, but Sister Leavitt answered.

"I'm not really sure what you mean."

"I HAVE A FRIEND WHO SAID SOME AUSTRIAN INVESTIGATORS WHO ARE STAYING WITH HIM MIGHT BE HERE TODAY."

"Sorry, I don't really understand-"

"WHERE WOULD INVESTIGATORS GO ON TEMPLE SQAURE?"

"Sir, we don't understand what you are talking about so we don't really know how to help yo-"

"I DON'T NEEEED YOUR HELP. YOU'RE AN AMERICAN. I HATE AMERICANS."

...

...




As this angry Austrian man was storming away, Sister Leavitt called out, "So why are you here?"

His parting words were very profound. They glittered in their straightforward truthfulness. One could even compare his words to a precious Austrian gem in a dirty American coal mine.

"EVERYONE MAKES MISTAKES!"

CLOSE QUOTE

so yeah that happened. I honestly didnt mean to say "why are you here then?" out loud it just sort of came and then he heard me so that was awkward.

Our Zone activity was today! It was a good time we just got together at a park and played some games. Kind of like a FHE. It was district against district and of course my district dominated the scene.

I am sorry this email is so incredibly lame.

The atonement is real so I will be better next week. I love you all "heaps" (I learned that word from my Australian comp)

-Sister Leavitt

 

 

Wednesday, October 8, 2015

Hi there!

Si, this week was amazing and I can not and will not believe that my last conference here is over. It was sweet, I even guessed the color of the dresses right. I promise I did. I went to the Saturday morning sesh and the choir was wearing dark blue. I was hoping that session would be the one where they would announce the new apostles but no dice. It was an awesome session though. It is a blessing that we get to attend! I didn't see too many people I knew this time around. On Saturday, I saw Natalie. She was with a boy and she is beautiful! Then yes I did see Elder Llewelyn. Before I saw him he gave some sisters a note to give to me that said something like, "Just wanted to say hey! Your family, especially your dad, were so good to me on my mission. I am happy to hear you are serving!."  and then I was talking to some people like an hour later and he comes up to me and goes "do you remember me?" and I was like "uhhh you look familiar?" Then it clicked. We talked for a minute and it was cool. On Sunday I just saw a few missionaries from outbound and the Tagilala family so that was awesome. We will have to go as a family to visit that area some time and that family especially you would love them.

Sister Burke and I managed to talk to 1 out of the 10 non members that were at Temple Square on Sunday. She just moved to SLC a few weeks ago and came to check out T2. We told her what was going on and did begin teaching her and turns out shes pretty golden. She actually lives right next to us but we aren't allowed to tell her that so we plan to just meet on the square with her and her husband. Conference never ceases to bring miracles. I got to listen to a little bit of the Sunday morning session as well and it was amazing to hear from the new apostles. I'm not real familiar with Elder Stevenson or Renlund but hearing them speak you know they are very humble men called of God. I love our dear prophet! It was so good to hear from him. At the funeral last week it was so sweet to see President Utchdorf and Erying by his side whenever he made the slightest movement or sign of stumbling. Let us all remember to keep him in our prayers as his health is...not the best.

At 7:30 on Sunday, after the craziness, the Piano Guys came and did a performance for us. One of the Sisters here was outbound companions with Jon Schmits daughter so she got the hook ups for us. The rest of his family performed too it was a good time.

HOLY MACKEREL.

So I am in the Beehive House again this transfer and my district and I were there together for the first time on Thursday night for closing shift. We close the Beehive at 8:15 and then have to wait a few minutes for security to come and close it. Anyways we wanted to do some exploring cause there is an attic up in the house that no one ever goes to. Long story short we were just exploring up there and all of a sudden we hear someone coming up the stairs. It was a young woman about my age dressed all in black and she just goes "what are you doing here?" "Are you new here?" I am SERIOUS okay... we saw what we are pretty sure was a ghost and she spoke to us!!! I am pretty sure it was 1 out of 57 of Brigham Youngs children! Ha! There were six sisters in total and we were all so scared. Sister Burke was finally like "hey we are closed you need to leave" and then she just bolts down the stairs and through the door but we never actually saw her leave. We told security and they said they have seen stuff like that too! The flipping house is over 160 years old of course its going to be sketch! So yeah Thursday nights if you could send an extra prayer my way that would be great.

Other than that every thing has been peachy. My new district is great! I am starting exchanges tomorrow with Sister Alliaud from Argentina. She knows my mom. (Sister Cardus)

I love you all. Take care and have a great week.

-Sister Leavitt

 

Saturday morning session

Sister Sami and I with the Tagilala sisters from outbound

Don't be jealous of my sweater

 

Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Hallo,

This week was a great one. There was a comicon convention so we had a bunch of characters on the square (literal characters.) Some of the foreign sisters thought it was Halloween haha. Temple Square is never boring thats for sure.

 The Church History Museum finally opened up again after a year of renovation and its sick! We got to take a tour of it on Wednesday. It was awesome! Some of the stuff in there is unreal. Like some clothing that Joseph Smith was wearing when he was killed and all kinds of treasures. It will be a good addition to the square for sure.

Then of course there was Womens Conference on Saturday. This Sister did not get to go cause I went last time. Lame sauce. But I did get to go on exchanges with Sister Rajah so it wasn't too bad. I heard it was awesome though I cant wait to go back and watch it. 

I did get to go to Richard G Scotts funeral though and that was amazing. They have a section for all of us sisters and I dont think I have ever been that cloe to the Prophet before. It was a beautiful celebration of his life and every one there was overjoyed that he is reunited with is sweet wife again. He will be missed here on earth. I remember he came to speak to us at the MTC the night before I came to my mission. He gave a wonderful talk on prayer and I have always remembered it. 

This week we had a miracle. Way back when I was with Sister Yunda we were teaching a man named Fred. We took him on a tour and he was absolutely golden. I taught him up until I went outbound and I have not been able to get a hold of him since I have been back. I have been so sad because I know he is so prepared and was planning on getting baptized soon. Well I think it was on Friday I got a call from him saying sorry he missed all my calls. We set up a time to talk and he told me that he is going to get baptized on October 31st! I am so happy for him! That will be the second time someone gets baptized on Halloween on my mission. Last year it was Mary. So that is the miracle and I am so happy about it after the bit of a drought we have been in. God is good and he answers prayers.

 

It is time for transfers and I have some great news...I am staying with Sister Burke! I will be serving as district leader again at the Beehive house. Baby Bon is also in my district. I am so excited! It is going to be awesome! It's hard to believe that this is my 10th transfer. I am getting so old! My pday will change to Wednesday so I will get two in a row!

So this week it occurred to me that God loves an unlikely scenario. For
example when the church was restored in 1830 there were approximately 1 billion 150 million people on the earth. How many members of the church were there? 6. Can you imagine the faith that they must have had that this was the true church. Imagine God is the coach and he tells you that your team is going to win when you enter the game of life and the score is 1,150,000,000 to 6.

I believed that God restored the gospel as soon as he could. He did it in a place where there was religious freedom but still the prophet Joseph Smith was persecuted and murdered at age 38. So it was unlikely that the church would continue to progress especially to the point
where it it today with over 15 million members but we made it. You can see another huge example of how God loves the under dog scenario by the life that Christ lived. He is the Savior of the world but he was a minority when he walked the earth. So if we feel like a minority sometimes in our own positions in our mission or just life in general we are in the right place. We are right there where the Savior walked and that makes us better and more true representatives of Him. 2 Timothy 3:12.

I am grateful for this work and for me there is no where else I would rather be. I am excited for conference this weekend to be spiritually fed and uplifted by the leaders of our church. Look for me in the Ensign. love you all.

-Sister Leavitt

The best district! I am going to miss them.

Cinderella visited the square. Some people were not impressed.

Selfie with Joseph Smith

 

Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Yeah hello,

how is everyone? Good good good good.

This week was awesome we had district activity and it including two of my favorite things: food and my district. It was a good time. I wore my tiger onesie. Gained some respect. We only have one more district meeting before the end of the transfer and I am real sad about it. I wrote to President this week and told him of the urgency that Sister Burke and I must stay together cause we were only together for 5 weeks and thats not enough okay?! I was more professional than that though.

This week we met Linda K Burton in the secret tunnels and Tad R Callister at the Lion House promptly after a member paid for us so yeah it was a good day! We saw him sit down fairly close to us and of course we wanted to approach him but we were panicking big time because we did not know how to address him we were like, "Is it just brother Callister? Is it Elder Callister? or is it President Callister?!!" It was a real big concern. So finally, we decided not to approach him but on the way out the spirit prompted me to go back so I took all the courage I had and ended up just greeting him with a real big awkward "hiiiiiiiii....?" hahaha. He stood up and greeted us immediately so that was nice. Then I was able to tell him that his talk "The Blueprint of Christs Church" has changed my mission (which it has) and he said, "Thank you, I am glad." Also, he has heard of Logandale. WINNING! But as usual he was much more interested in talking to my cool foreign companion from Brisbane Australia. Its cool though, I'm not bitter. It was awesome! I mean this is not doctrine or anything but pretty dang sure he is going to be one of the now 3 new apostles. Calling it!

One of our investigators Kevin is so prepared and ready to be baptized but alas, he has a smoking addiction. Sister Burke thought of the idea that we will quit sugar if he quits smoking and lets just say we have not been living up to our end of the deal.  We may have to do some serious repenting and think of another alternative! Its not easy to quit something you love, I realize that now.

We have been getting some seriously mad antis coming through the Beehive House. They all seem to come out of hibernation right before conference and boy they are grumpy! We have learned that when they ask how many wives Brigham Young had that if we just put a massive smile on our face and confidently say "Over 50!" they get thrown off and don't know what to say. Confidence and a powerful testimony are key cause they can't argue with that.

"It would be difficult to imagine anything more exciting to do as a young man, woman, or couple in the world today than to be a full-time missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The message of the restored gospel we share is absolutely vital. It is from God our Eternal Father for every one of His children on earth and is centered in His Beloved Son, Jesus Christ. When that message is understood and lived, it can replace turmoil with peace, sorrow with happiness and provide solutions to life’s persistent challenges."-Richard G Scott

Love you all.

-Sister Leavitt

District Activity :)

I spy Tad R Callister eating at the lion house.  Look at my companion being low key ninja.

Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Hello!

 

This week I had 4 exchanges in 5 days. I saved Sister Rajah best for last on Friday and it was a glorious day. She taught me so much.

but they are dun now.

Now I actually get to spend time with my companion which has been awesome. We pray we stay together next transfer.

A couple weeks ago President Poulsen introduced his idea for us sisters to prepare for a 5K race that will take place in November. In preparation we have group leaders that take us for a run every morning up the canyon and around the world it feels like. It was cool and cute the first couple days but it has turned into absolute brutality running every morning. This altitude has no charity for the lungs and I feel like I should not have to struggle to receive oxygen as much as I have! In California I could run no big deal cause the sea level was quality. This may just be an excuse for my horrible stamina but none the less, I now remember why I skipped out on so much track practice!

On Friday morning after comp study we got a call from our zone leaders asking where we were. I didn't remember any kind of meeting we were supposed to be to so I asked what they were talking about. APPARENTLY they sent out a text at 9:30 that morning that the whole mission was to meet together that same morning at 10:10 for a special meeting. Guess who didn't get that text? Us.

Guess who was speaking at the special meeting? President Russell M Nelson! So the meeting was starting at 10:30 and the Zone Leaders called us at 10:25. And I was NOT going to be late for a meeting with the next potential prophet, right? Sister Burke and I have never ran so fast in our entire lives and we made it right before the opening song. My comp and I did a secret high five and enjoyed the presence of an apostle. It was awesome!  He just decided to meet with our mission for no apparent reason. I honestly thought he was going to announce the second coming or rebuke us but he just felt like he should come talk to us and I'm so glad he did! He gave a message on our purpose as missionaries and it was so inspired! I love this mission so much.

We were able to find 7 new investigators this week because there was a massive Doterra convention here this past week. This whole square smelled like essential oils. It was pretty great. It was like the largest convention in SLC ever.  There were plenty of hippy mormon moms running around along with a ton of non members too. We took sooo many tours and found some who are prepared for the gospel so we are excited to start teaching them.

I know this church is true!

Loves,

-Sister Leavitt

Accidental matchy match

My district minus Sister Rajah

Wait,  this Asian man is grabbing my hand...

OK. We'll go with it!